2023 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 31 - April 02

[abhi1200]

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That difference is deceiving as Lewis backed off massively in S3 and Max had 4th zone of DRS in that sector.

https://i.postimg.cc/25YvGN7p/aus-diff.png

https://preview.redd.it/5id0db53dir81.j ... 0478b4b9c6

That's still 1.6 seconds faster however you want to look at it.
Lewis couldn't come close to matching it behind or ahead of Verstappen at similar intervals.

So Max did a 35.0 in sector 3 with DRS on lap 12 when the overtake + 2 second gap pull occurred. On lap 14 without DRS and presumably into tyre management, Lewis also managed a 35.0 - the same sector 3 time... so Max pulling away 2s in 6 corners (in s3) wasn't just a function of car advantage as many are construing, and Lewis did match Max's sector 3 performance only 2 laps later

it really shouldn't be hard to interpret this data correctly 1.6s is 1.6s and arises from the car in front being faster than the car behind. We can look at the laptime data in context and see why that gap arose. It's clear from their sector 3 times on other laps, it was Lewis going slowly rather than Max going quickly that generated the vast majority of the delta in those 6 corners. The onboard of Lewis going through 9-10 compared to his other laps.. it is just obvious how much he backed off.

[mendis]

That difference is deceiving as Lewis backed off massively in S3 and Max had 4th zone of DRS in that sector.

https://i.postimg.cc/25YvGN7p/aus-diff.png

https://preview.redd.it/5id0db53dir81.j ... 0478b4b9c6

That's still 1.6 seconds faster however you want to look at it.
Lewis couldn't come close to matching it behind or ahead of Verstappen at similar intervals.

So Max did a 35.0 in sector 3 with DRS on lap 12 when the overtake + 2 second gap pull occurred. On lap 14 without DRS and presumably into tyre management, Lewis also managed a 35.0 - the same sector 3 time... so Max pulling away 2s in 6 corners (in s3) wasn't just a function of car advantage as many are construing

it really shouldn't be hard to interpret this data correctly

Apparent, it's not. It's still 1.6 seconds faster however you want to look at it.

No doubt that RB19 has a leg up on everyone and probably was around 0.7 to 1 second faster over a lap in race, which is what we have been observing through these 3 GPs.

[mzso]

Did it hurt the sport when 9 teams failed to challenge Mercedes during 5/6 years out of a 8 year dominance in the hybrid era?

Yes.

Apparent, it's not. It's still 1.6 seconds faster however you want to look at it.

And it's totally meaningless without context. It doesn't at all show the difference in performance.

[ValeVida46]

So Max did a 35.0 in sector 3 with DRS on lap 12 when the overtake + 2 second gap pull occurred. On lap 14 without DRS and presumably into tyre management, Lewis also managed a 35.0 - the same sector 3 time... so Max pulling away 2s in 6 corners (in s3) wasn't just a function of car advantage as many are construing, and Lewis did match Max's sector 3 performance only 2 laps later

Nope it was a 36.06. Or 1 second more than you're suggesting

it really shouldn't be hard to interpret this data correctly 1.6s is 1.6s and arises from the car in front being faster than the car behind. We can look at the laptime data in context and see why that gap arose. It's clear from their sector 3 times on other laps, it was Lewis going slowly rather than Max going quickly that generated the vast majority of the delta in those 6 corners. The onboard of Lewis going through 9-10 compared to his other laps.. it is just obvious how much he backed off.

But we have Max himself saying he was taking it easy. On lap 24 Max was 1.5 seconds faster with
Lambiase saying on lap 13:

Gap behind two seconds. Into management, Max. It’s a long way from here. And think about that combo at nine and 10.

With Max saying

I could have been a little bit more aggressive(at the start). But on the other hand, I didn’t want to have any damage on my car, because I knew that we had a quick car, right?

The suggestion I'm hearing is that Lewis was taking it easy and Max continued at a rate of knots.
Yes the 1.6 arose from DRS, but the proceeding gaps to Lewis were not DRS linked and remain evidence of a huge gap between the Red Bull and the rest of the field. It's clear as day they're coasting and not anywhere near maximum.

[organic]

So Max did a 35.0 in sector 3 with DRS on lap 12 when the overtake + 2 second gap pull occurred. On lap 14 without DRS and presumably into tyre management, Lewis also managed a 35.0 - the same sector 3 time... so Max pulling away 2s in 6 corners (in s3) wasn't just a function of car advantage as many are construing, and Lewis did match Max's sector 3 performance only 2 laps later

https://i.postimg.cc/25YvGN7p/aus-diff.png
Nope it was a 36.06. Or 1 second more than you're suggesting

it really shouldn't be hard to interpret this data correctly 1.6s is 1.6s and arises from the car in front being faster than the car behind. We can look at the laptime data in context and see why that gap arose. It's clear from their sector 3 times on other laps, it was Lewis going slowly rather than Max going quickly that generated the vast majority of the delta in those 6 corners. The onboard of Lewis going through 9-10 compared to his other laps.. it is just obvious how much he backed off.

But we have Max himself saying he was taking it easy. On lap 24 Max was 1.5 seconds faster with
Lambiase saying on lap 13:

Gap behind two seconds. Into management, Max. It’s a long way from here. And think about that combo at nine and 10.

With Max saying

I could have been a little bit more aggressive(at the start). But on the other hand, I didn’t want to have any damage on my car, because I knew that we had a quick car, right?

The suggestion I'm hearing is that Lewis was taking it easy and Max continued at a rate of knots.
Yes the 1.6 arose from DRS, but the proceeding gaps to Lewis were not DRS linked and remain evidence of a huge gap between the Red Bull and the rest of the field. It's clear as day they're coasting and not anywhere near maximum.

Thank you for pointing out my reading error. Oh dear

+1 Agree with all of the above. & Just to clarify I was not intending to suggest RB were pushing or close to their maximum pace.

[ValeVida46]

Thank you for pointing out my reading error. Oh dear

+1 Agree with all of the above. & Just to clarify I was not intending to suggest RB were pushing or close to their maximum pace.

It's all good

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Imola was c2-c4 in 2021, 2022. Now c3-c5

[AR3-GP]

When will we see the first two stop race?

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When will we see the first two stop race?

Hang on.. wasn't the last race a 3 stopper Baku I would guess. RB/AMR 1-stop and others two stop

[AR3-GP]

I've just had an idea. Why don't the FIA try mixing up the mandatory number of stops at the different GPs? As opposed to messing with the weekend format constantly.

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I've just had an idea. Why don't the FIA try mixing up the mandatory number of stops at the different GPs? As opposed to messing with the weekend format constantly.

A lot of races would be won by drivers that had early damage or out of position who could stand to do a couple of pitstops and catch back up to the SC queue.. and then everyone else would do more pitstops than the degradation requires. We get a lot of early SCs so this would be a legitimate strategy if they had more than 1 mandatory stop

[AR3-GP]

I've just had an idea. Why don't the FIA try mixing up the mandatory number of stops at the different GPs? As opposed to messing with the weekend format constantly.

A lot of races would be won by drivers that had early damage or out of position who could stand to do a couple of pitstops and catch back up to the SC queue.. and then everyone else would do more pitstops than the degradation requires. We get a lot of early SCs so this would be a legitimate strategy if they had more than 1 mandatory stop

Would the bolded be a bad thing especially if it ends up being slower cars fighting for their life in closing stages?

SC's are by no means guaranteed and you are still gambling no matter your position. No one is going to compromise the first part of their race on purpose. Even then, you might find yourself a lap down if you have taken 2-3 pitstops before the leader stops.

[CMC]

Much was made of George Russell's post-Australia interviews in which he offered up speculation about Red Bull holding back with the RB19. The Race published an article:
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/russ ... potential/

Not mentioned in detail in that report was Max's own interview with Rosanna Tennant after the race where she asked him about this. I thought his comments were interesting. In typical fashion, Max was a little less political about it, and I appreciate what I saw as an honest take from him.

Here is some of their conversation (the interview is also in the BBC Chequered Flag podcast post race episode):

Tennant - "Are you pushing it as much as you can, or are you slightly holding back so that the head honchos don't kind of put you at a disadvantage come later in the season?"

Verstappen - "I mean I think anyway there's nothing really they can do. I mean we just try to do the best we can, right, with the development of the car. But it's also about pace management because we didn't really know, I think no one really knew how long that hard tire would last. And so it's about just bringing it home because we had a bit of pace I think over the others. And yeah there is no need to try and gain half a second a lap and destroy your tires to the end. Because you never know, like a safety car can happen, red flags, like we had today, and so yeah it's not necessary to risk all that."

Tennant - "And just going back to that very first start if we can remember that far back, it seemed like you had a little bit of trouble getting away. I was a bit worried, then, when we had more restarts you were going to suffer. Is there a clutch problem underlying?"

Verstappen - "No, we just didn't have a good start, not the right - we didn't choose the right procedure, and yeah I was just quite cautious on the first lap. I didn't want to risk getting damage. And the cars behind me they were really aggressive, I mean fair enough. They knew they were not quick enough and so the only chance they have is lap 1 and they took advantage of that."

Tennant - "I love that. And so the only chance to get you now is on a start?"

Verstappen - "Uhhh, at the moment. We don't know what's going to happen in the future races."

[PlatinumZealot]

Is there any real reason that laps done behind the SC cannot be added on at the end of the race increasing the race distance by up to say 6 laps maximum?

I literally cannot see any reason why they cant do it as you would only need a small additional amount of fuel. And it would give the teams the change to play with the risk of slightly underfuelling the car at the risk of having no safety car to cover the race distance rather than a potential race distance + 6 laps. That risk would also be massively reduced when the sport turns to more hybrid power units.

It would also greatly reduce the chance of the race finishing under the safety car aswell, as the laps done behind the SC are effectively voided by increasing the race distance.

It works perfectly fine in other race series. There is absolutely no reason it wouldnt work in F1 (I can see)

Fuel. Engine mileage etc. The teams would burn fuel in anticipation to have 1 liter left in the tank at the end of the race. If the laps are extended by 5 more.... After say two laps from the end gery likely a car would run out of fuel within tge five laps.